Illuminated electric razor



Dec. 20, 1960 J. L. BONANNO 2,965,748

ILLUMINATED ELECTRIC RAZOR Filed March 6, 1959 INVENTOR dose-Pff ..Eo/v/m//vo ATTORNEYS United States Patent O ILLUMINATED ELECTRIC RAZOR Joseph L. Bonanno, South Grange, NJ., assignor to The Lionel Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Mar. 6, 1959, Ser. No. 797,621

3 Claims. (Cl. 240-2) The present invention relates to an electric razor and particularly to a lighting arrangement therefor.

Electric razors are used often under conditions of illumination which do not permit one to see how well the face is being shaved. Indeed such conditions prevail quite generally. As a result unnecessary time may be spent going over a portion of the face which is already adequately shaved, or parts of the face may be left incompletely shaved. Feeling the face does not always give an accurate indication of the appearance and may leave inadequately shaved parts undetected. Accordingly it is an object of this invention to provide an electric razor which produces a high illumination on the very part of the face which is being shaved so that the user can see at all times what the condition is.

Another object of my invention is to provide an electric razor with sutlicient illumination precisely where required, with a minimum expenditure of power or mechanical complexity.

Another object of the invention is to provide an electric razor with a protected internal light source which provides a high degree of illumination along the cutting head.

Gther objects and advantages of my invention will be pointed out and become apparent from the following description and the drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a partial sectional view showing portions of the vibrator and the lamp;

Fig. 3 is a partial sectional View taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is an exploded view of the lamp assembly and its support; and

Fig. 5 is a diagram of the circuit connections for the lamp.

The electric razor has a casing 12 which may have front and back portions 13 and 14 held together by screws 15 or other suitable fastening means. The top of the casing 16 has a cutting head 18. The casing 12 is provided with a switch 20 and input terminals 21 to which a power cord (not shown) may be connected.

It will be understood that the present invention is applicable to electric razors of any type but for the sake of definiteness the one herein illustrated is shown as including a vibrating motor comprising vibrator coils 22, 23 wound on a coil form 24 preferably made of insulating material. A magnetic core 26 extends through the coil form and provides pole pieces 27 for a vibratory magnetic armature 25. In a manner well understood in the art the armature may be spring biased and connected to the cutting head 18 for actuating the same.

The coil form 24 has a pair of opstanding diverging arms 28 and 29 provided with inwardly facing notches Sil and 31. A tubular or cylindrical lamp 32 is mounted between the arms 28 and 29. The lamp may have a low wattage rating, of say, one to three watts and a low voltage rating of say, two to six volts. The lamp may have a length of somewhat more than an inch and a diameter of perhaps one quarter of an inch. The filament of the lamp extends longitudinally between a pair of metallic end caps 33 and 34` which serve as the terminals. The lamp is supported between the arms 28 and 29 by a pairof coil spring holders 35 and 36 which are adapted to tightly fit over the end caps 33 and 34 and engage the arms 28 and 29.

Current is fed to the lamp by wires 40 and 41 which may have bared portions 42 and 43 wound round the supporting arms 28 and 29 in the notches 30 and 31. A current is conducted from wires 40 and 41 to the lamp by the holders or retainers 35 and 36 and/or by direct contact between the wire portions 42 and i3 andend caps 33 and 34. Wires 40 and 41 are connected to one or more coils 45 which are wound on either or both vibrator coils 22 and 23. The number of turns on the coil 45 relative to the number of turns on the vibrator coils is so small that the vibrator coils and coil 45 form a voltage step-down transformer providing the required voltage of say two to six volts for lighting the lamp. Coil 45 is suitably insulated from the vibrator coils by one or more layers of insulation.

An elongated prismatic lens 50 is mounted in a slot in the casing for redirecting the light from the lamp toward the cutting head, as indicated by the arrow 51. The lens 50 has a substantially triangular cross section with its upper face 52 being curved to form a lens for focusing the light in the required direction. The lens may be made of Lucite or other suitable material. In order to concentrate the transmission of light toward the lens a rel-lector or reflective coating 54 may be provided on the side of the lamp opposite the lens.

Although l have illustrated my invention by showing one embodiment thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that many modifications and variations may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention, and, therefore, the invention is not to be construed as limited except as defined in the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In an electric razor including a casing, a cutting head and a motor; an elongated lamp, meansfor mounting said lamp in said casing near the cutting head and parallel to the axis of the cutting head, said casing having an elongated slot parallel to and in proximity to said lamp, and a prismatic lens in said slot for directing the light from said lamp along the outside of said casing toward said cutting head, said lens being of generally triangular cross section and having a first side substantially parallel to the side of said casing containing the slot, the lens having a second side facing the cutting head, said second side extending outwardly from said first side of the lens an appreciable distance beyond the casing, the third side of the lens being at an acute angle to the rst side and extending therefrom outwardly through the casing whereby the light from the lamp enters the lens through the first side and is internally reflected by the third side and then is directed by the second side along the outside of the casing toward the cutting head.

2. The apparatus dened in claim 1, wherein the second side of the lens has a convex surface for converging the light directed toward the cutting head.

3. The apparatus dened in claim 1 including, a pair of spaced arms integral with the motor and extending therefrom toward the cutting head and a pair of resilient cups fastened to the ends of said arrns and engaging the ends of said lamp, whereby the lamp and motor form a unitary assembly.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Dalkowitz June 30, 1942 Cameron et al. Oct. 10, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain Mar. 9, 1948 France Sept. 12, 1949 Great Britain Oct. 24, 1956 

